New (copyrighted) preprint at BioRxiv, Population Replacement in Early Neolithic Britain, by Brace et al. (2018).
Abstract (emphasis mine):
The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Anatolian ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain c. 6000 years ago (kBP), a millennium after they appear in adjacent areas of northwestern continental Europe. However, the pattern and process of the British Neolithic transition remains unclear. We assembled genome-wide data from six Mesolithic and 67 Neolithic individuals found in Britain, dating from 10.5-4.5 kBP, a dataset that includes 22 newly reported individuals and the first genomic data from British Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Our analyses reveals persistent genetic affinities between Mesolithic British and Western European hunter-gatherers over a period spanning Britain’s separation from continental Europe. We find overwhelming support for agriculture being introduced by incoming continental farmers, with small and geographically structured levels of additional hunter-gatherer introgression. We find genetic affinity between British and Iberian Neolithic populations indicating that British Neolithic people derived much of their ancestry from Anatolian farmers who originally followed the Mediterranean route of dispersal and likely entered Britain from northwestern mainland Europe.
Also, Genetiker has updated Y-SNP calls from new data published from the Harvard group.
The R1b lineages that expanded from (Yamna->) East Bell Beakers -> Western Europe are more and more clearly of R1b-L151 subclades, as expected.
Quite interesting are the early samples from Poland, of R1b1a1a2a2-Z2103 and R1b1a1a2a1a-L151 lineages – , which may point (different to the more homogeneous L151 distribution in Western Europe) to a mix in both original (east-west) Yamna groups. This could tentatively be used to explain the Graeco-Aryan influence that some linguists see in Balto-Slavic (or its superstrate).
That link would then be quite early, to account for an influence during the Yamna settlements in Hungary, before its expansion as East Bell Beakers, but we haven’t seen a clearly differentiated subgroup (yet) in Archaeology, Anthropology, or Genomics within the Hungarian Yamna/East Bell Beaker community, so I am not convinced. It could be just that different scattered subclades mixed with the general L151 population pop up (following old Yamna lineages, or having being added along the way), as expected in an expansion over such a great territory – as if some scattered samples of R1a, I1, I2, J, etc. were found.
We need more early samples from south-eastern Europe and the steppe during the Chalcolithic to ascertain the composition and migration paths of the different Yamna settlers.
Other interesting findings are the early (Proto-)Bell Beaker samples of haplogroup R1b with no steppe ancestry from Spain – which some autochthonous continuists wanted to believe was a proof of some kind – , which are actually R1b-V88, a haplogroup known to have expanded throughout Europe quite early. In fact, this subclade has been recently shown to have most likely expanded through the Green Sahara region, and is potentially linked to the expansion of Afro-Asiatic.
See also:
- The Indo-European demic diffusion model, and the “R1b – Indo-European” association
- R1b-V88 migration through Southern Italy into Green Sahara corridor, and the Afroasiatic connection
- The Tollense Valley battlefield: the North European ‘Trojan war’ that hints to western Balto-Slavic origins
- Bell Beaker/early Late Neolithic (NOT Corded Ware/Battle Axe) identified as forming the Pre-Germanic community in Scandinavia
- Potential Afroasiatic Urheimat near Lake Megachad
- Heyd, Mallory, and Prescott were right about Bell Beakers
